2-20-14 Update

We are sitting in the Infusion center, waiting for the last IV bag to empty out. Never fast enough. The last few days have been a little bit of a roller coaster, on Monday Jenny was unable to get out of bed or walk without assistance, it was pretty scary. The only change was that her dosage of anti-seizure medicine had been doubled on Saturday, so we hoped that there was a correlation between the increase in dosage and the decrease in function... We based the dose back to the original level and see seems to be doing better. 

Jenny and Her Dad at the Infusion Center

She continues to take naps everyday and not have a huge amount of energy, but it looks like we are not going to have to employ the walker that a bought quite yet....

We have been blessed with having Jenny's sister Maria here on Monday, and then her mom and dad here for a few days this week. It has been a real blessing!

Thank you all for your prayers and support, and if you haven't signed up for the Brain Tumor Fund Raising race in Charlotte on March 22nd do so by clicking here.

  

The latest as of 2.9.14

Sorry for the delay in posts. Here is the latest - Jenny has started a daily pilled based chemo (Temador). This is the same medicine that she was on when she was getting radiation. She will be on this for the next 30 days, and then we'll do another MRI. Based on the pathology of the tumor, we have some indication that it might be effective.

We also had to meet with a Neurologist this week after Jenny suffered a mild seizure last week. She is now on some anti-seizure medicine and will go in for an EEG in a couple of weeks to see if there seems to be any addition abnormal brain wave activity. She has not had any other events like that since.

Overall, she is holding up well, the chemo has taken a little spring out of her step, but she is overall doing well. Jenny's sister, Paty, came and stated at the house for a few days earlier this week and was a real blessing with her laughter and culinary skills and allowed me to head up to Boston for a couple of days to meet with a client. At the worship meeting this morning a group of people prayed for Jenny, which was very encouraging to both of us.

We are enjoying the nice weather, taking some opportunities to sit out in the sun... Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

For any of you in the charlotte area, we are doing a 5K/10K fund raising race on 3/22. Go to this link - password is Jenny if you want to register for the race... the team name is Running for Jenny

Update on Duke Trial

We sent the latest MRI to Duke for them to review, which they did yesterday. There is a 1 cm minimum size that the tumor has to be in order for them to consider anyone for the trial, Jenny does not meet this criteria, so we will discuss options with the oncologist here in Charlotte on Thursday.

Thanks for your prayers and support, just wanted to keep everyone informed... 

MRI Results and Next Steps

Jenny had another MRI performed yesterday and we met with her oncologist today to discuss the results:

The MRI shows some signs of new tumor growth, not enormous, but detectable. This was not want we wanted, but what we expected, given her symptoms that we have observed over the last few weeks. 

So, now we will send the latest MRI up to Duke and see if she now qualifies for the polio vaccine trial.  This may involve further testing and it is not clear if she is a good candidate or not. If she does not qualify for the trail, we will try a different type of chemo (pill based) to see if that will help limit the tumor's ability to grow.  

She had a great time this week-end with some very long-time friends from the DC area, everyone was encouraged by their fellowship and God's loving care that he provides to us through dear friends. 

I thought that I would add one of our Christmas photos, since we were not that good at getting all of our Christmas cards out this year:

Thanks for your continued prayers, pray for us to have wisdom during this time of decision making, and that we could bring glory to God in the process...

Some Discouraging Developments

Over the last few weeks we have noticed that Jenny had gotten noticeably weaker and having a harder time with some routine tasks, especially if they involved remembering things. She has also communicated that she was losing some of her feeling in her right hand and foot. None of these were very encouraging developments. 

At today's visit, the Doctor confirmed our concerns and scheduled an MRI for next week to take a look at what is going on in Jenny's head. 

If you could pray for grace for all of us, as we transition to a greater level of daily care for Jenny and each other. Pray specially for Jenny, that she would not be discouraged and overwhelmed by this new set of physical obstacles. 

We will let you know how the MRI goes next week. We so appreciate all of your care and prayers for us.

Changing things up a little bit...

I pray that everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating our savior's birth. I hope your Christmas was filled with peace and joy, and not too much fruitcake...

Jenny and I are at the Infusion center again today, but we made an important decision regarding treatment options: today's visit to the infusion center will be remarkably short because we have decided to stop the chemotherapy medicine and just have Jenny do a maintenance treatment of avastin. 

We spent some time this morning discussing options with Jenny's oncologist, and we all agreed that we would try the avastin only for a few sessions here and then do another MRI later in January or early in February to see if there is any activity.

What this means is that the length and side effects  of the treatments are substantially lessened ( the time in the infusion center should go from 4-5 hours to 1-2 hours) and the side effects should be minimal, so, that is all good.

We had a very nice Christmas, it was nice and quiet with all of the kids at home for a couple of meals. 

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Our best hopes confirmed - The Duke Visit

We have just finished up our visit at the Duke Cancer Center - it is a very impressive facility, with wonderful caring people - a evidence of God's grace. We learned a lot in our conversations with the specialist here at Duke, which has been very helpful. They are a dedicated brain cancer center that has a huge amount of experience with people like Jenny. The really good news is that they don't want to see Jenny back for a while, because she is doing so well and is having clean MRIs. They don't have anything to offer until the tumor starts to grow again, if it does. 

We have a clearer understanding of the future treatment options and will have much to talk about when we have the next appointment in Charlotte, we are really looking at the next year, and what options there will be available to us. Overall a very hopeful and positive trip. 

Thanks for all your prayers.